Mohammed Shami took giant strides in his quest to return to full fitness as his three-for set up Bengal’s eight-wicket win over Hyderabad in the group ‘A’ fixture of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy at the Niranjan Shah Stadium here on Monday.
Bengal completed the 138-run target with more than two overs to spare after openers Abhishek Porel (41 off 39) and Karan Lal (46 off 29) set up the chase with an aggressive 84-run stand.
Even though Bengal lost its openers in quick succession, Shahbaz Ahmed and Sudip Gharami didn’t let Hyderabad sniff a comeback.
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With Bengal opting to bowl after winning the toss, Shami removed both Hyderabad openers – Tanmay Agarwal and Rahul Singh Gahlaut – with the new ball. He later cleaned up G. Anikethreddy with a yorker to finish with the figures of 3/21.
As Hyderabad batters fell at regular intervals, Tilak Varma (57 off 44) stood tall among the ruins, keeping the scoreboard ticking. When he did try to up the ante, he was caught behind; the team was later bundled out for 137.
Punjab dominates Bihar
Earlier in the day, Punjab returned to its dominant best, defeating Bihar by six wickets in the other group ‘A’ encounter.
The defending champion completed the 114-run target with more than 10 overs to spare after Abhishek Sharma (33 off 14) and Prabhsimran (38 off 15) gave a strong start, adding 71 runs in the first four overs.
Nawaz struck twice to remove both the openers shortly to seek a hopeless comeback, but it was too late for Punjab to fret as Anmolpreet Singh and Ramandeep Singh took the team home.
Bihar began strongly after opting to bat, with captain S Gani leading the charge, striking 19 runs off Arshdeep Singh’s opening over.
However, Baltej Singh ended Gani’s quickfire 27 off 12 balls two overs later, after which Punjab took control of the proceedings.
Harpreet Brar took three quick wickets in the middle overs, while Ramandeep Singh struck twice, as Punjab restricted Bihar to a below-par score of 113/6.
Brief scores
Hyderabad 137 all out in 18.3 overs (Tilak Varma 57, Rahul Buddhi 30, Mohammed Shami 3/21) lost to Bengal (Abishek Porel 41, Karan Lal 46)
Bihar 113/6 in 20 overs (Harpreet Brar 3/18) lost to Punjab 114/4 in 9.4 overs (Prabhsimran Singh 38, Abhishek Sharma 33)